Justin Timberlake Wants To Kill His Critics

Unsurprisingly, Justin Timberlake is featured in GQ’s Men Of The Year issue. Dude dominated the entertainment industry this year, he’s one of the few genuine superstars on the planet, and despite wearing shirts like this one he’s genuinely known for being one suave motherfucker. So, duh. What’s more likely to raise your eyebrow is the vitriol Timberlake spills in his interview, in which he laments that, “sometimes I just want to fucking kill everybody” and “I feel — literally — like a bunch of people just took a shit on my face.” Apparently he was peeved about the critical reception for The 20/20 Experience — 2 of 2 and the box office failure of his recent film Runner Runner. Read on to feel Timberlake’s rage.

On receiving the Men Of The Year honor this year:

I find it ironic that I’m doing an interview with you about Man of the Year when I feel — literally — like a bunch of people just took a shit on my face.

On being shaped by Memphis:

It’s a struggling city with a defeatist attitude. I’m from this town, and I grew up with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, so sometimes I find it funny that I’ve been able to acquire the patience it takes to be kind to people in our business. Because sometimes I just want to fucking kill everybody.

On recent criticism from Variety and Billboard:

The movie didn’t do well at the box office, so I should quit? Hold on a second. If I was somebody else, you wouldn’t have said that. I have the number one album this week, and I shouldn’t have released it? Come on, man. You sound like a dickhead…. It just shocked me because, like, you’re trade magazines. None of your opinions count. And by the way, none of you can do it.

This also seems like a good time to revisit Jezebel’s report that Timberlake’s anger isn’t only directed at his critics. Here’s a story about a fan approaching Justin in a restaurant, from writer Jaed Coffin who almost ghostwrote Timberlake’s memoir:

Timberlake smiled but remained silent. The woman walked away. He shook his head. “Sometimes I just want to spit my food at them.” He looked at me for agreement, realized he didn’t know who I was then looked at Melissa. “I mean that’s really rude of me, right? That I wanted to spit my chicken sandwich in that woman’s face?” He exhaled. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But sometimes I just want to eat my damn sandwich.”

The big differentiating factor is the quality of their recent work. Yeezus, Watch the Throne, and MBDTF received almost unanimous praise from critics, especially in the “indie-alternative-whatever” corner of the internet.

However “20/20 Experience Part II” was widely considered to be very problematic and uneven.

So when Kanye complains about his critics we’re more disposed to agree. It’s less about personality, and more about the validity of their feelings.

I think the difference is that Kanye doesn’t pretend to be a good guy – his whole shtick is his abrasiveness and general a**holery – but JT has always put himself out there as a nice, down to earth goofball, so this behavior is off-putting at the least and, to some fans, probably seems like a betrayal of sorts.

Kind of a disingenuous headline, guys. “Sometimes I just want to fucking kill everybody” sounds very different from “Timberlake wants to kill his critics.” The former means he gets very frustrated sometimes, to a degree I think most of us can relate to, the later means JT could, at any second, lose control of himself and actually murder someone.

Granted, this is Stereogum, where there is often silliness to be found in copy. But for such a serious matter as one’s likelihood to commit homicide, I think you should have chosen your words more carefully.

You do realize that’s a direct quote from JT and NOT the title of the article….

The title was “Justin Timberlake Wants to Kill His Critics.” If anything the title was more informative than the original quote cited. I agree that plenty of times SGum article titles are stretched to draw readers in, but in this case I frankly find your playing of the “C’mon guys, Homicide is Serious ” card pretty lame.

I’m not trying to sound like someone’s Mom telling you not to joke about death. What I’m trying to say is that JT saying “sometimes” is a big time qualifier, one that radically changes the rest of the sentence. If he didn’t say “sometimes,” it would have sounded more like a threat than the guy venting. And when I read the headline, that’s exactly what I was expecting to read.

And listen, we can go back and forth on this issue for hours, but when a headline implies that its subject is more homicidal than he said he was, that’s veering into libel territory. That’s what my problem here is.

Actually, Webster’s is American, and English is from England. So until Oxford do the same to appease the uneducated morons (they make mention but have not officially modified) JT’s still a dunce for me. Literally.

First of all there are 5 times as many “American-English” speakers than there are “British-English,” so your argument that Britain still has sovereignty over the language is bullshit.

Not to mention its a well documented fact that Oxford is more concerned with dictating how people are “supposed” to speak (In England) where as Merriam-Webster has adopted a policy of studying the vernacular of America and modifying it as the culture changes. In this regard, many linguists deem Merriam-Webster the more progressive tool for studying the inevitably changing language as opposed to the hoity-toity conservative method of telling people how to talk.

You’re probably still butt hurt from that time America revolted, kept the language for spite got rid of that stupid fancy accent and upgraded it with words like ‘cookie,’ ‘french fries,’ and ‘YOLO.’

Well done for pointing out a numerical statistic on population. Irrelevant, but I can tell you’re proud. Maybe there will be a Chinese-English one day that will usurp this whole debate that I’m sure you’ll back 100%.

Second paragraph, not bad. Shame the third was poor, although I did like the (what I hope) was self-deprication in the final few words. Why you think the revolution would personally bother me, confuses. Why “that accent” (as if there was only one and not a multitude) is stupid I don’t understand. Although I will admit listening to southern American accents does make me think ‘mensa’ and certainly not ‘stupid’ at all.

Fact is, Webster is being honest in the appraisal of the evolution of a bastardising of a proper language. When they’re forced to document that a definition of a word is the opposite of the definition of a word it’s simply the appraisal of a poor education system, and no amount of blind loyalty can change that. So take off your rose-tinted specs, and jog on, ace.

the interviewer should have stood up, started doing the robot, then exclaimed THATS WHAT MAKES YOU LARGER THAN LIFE. then jt could have been all like THATS THE BACKSTREET BOYS YOU CLOD and spit his gold encrusted chicken sandwich in his face and the interviewer could have layed down in shame under the table crying on JTs feet then JT could have jumped on the back of a dinosaur and flew away yelling BYE BYE BYE.

This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. What’s the point of this article? To make JT look like a whining bitch who gets upset when people don’t like what he does? That’s dumb. He’s a human being who wants to feel good about the things he does as much as Chris DeVille wants to feel good about writing this snot. We should all be able to understand how Mr. Timberlake feels when critics told everyone his release was boring as crap. Whether it was “good” or “not” is beside the point. If critics are allowed to legitimately call something shit, then the criticized artist is allowed to legitimately respond by being hurt. And as bat-shit-creepy as it sounds to say you want to kill everybody, I think we all understand the sentiment. So shut up and let the guy have his feelings hurt. Art IS personal and music critics don’t ever seem to get that……………unless it makes them look cool…or like Pitchfork.

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